Back to the sewing machine

Life got busy. Since going back to work back in November, sewing and crafting had stopped. Although it's only been part time (2 days a week), there's been Christmas, holidays and two little children who've suddenly needed a bit of extra special care at bed times. Mr now 14 months has been going through some big separation anxiety, and Miss 3 has just been in one of those phases where she needs some extra stories and cuddles in order to go off to sleep.

But then I realised how much I've been missing it. A long list of projects was made and these hats became the first project to be ticked off the list. They're reversible which makes them so much easier to sew, and fun to mix and match the designs. I've made four different sizes in each design and they're all up in my etsy shop already.

I loved this jungle animal fabric when I saw it on sale ages ago but hadn't been able to think of any projects to make - too many little boys being born around here! It makes a nice contrast to the sea life print below, which is on the reverse side.

I first bought this dinosaur print to make a smart little collared shirt for my son to wear to his first birthday party, and ended up buying some more as it's just so cute.

I opted for robots on the reverse side. Cute, no?

My daughter had a pillowcase dress from this Hello Kitty fabric when she was just over 1 year old - I love how it looks made up as this hat!

Paired up with a nice quiet polkadot pattern on the reverse side.

Both of my kids have hats made from this collection of fabrics, although the caravan print is a new addition to my fabric stash. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but I love the finished look.

A hat pattern and tutorial will soon follow!

Spring is near

Continuing on with trying to be crafty with Mia, we tried out threading with the coloured pasta. Although difficult still, Mia loved sitting together and threading. Then she just went mad for pouring and putting coloured pasta all over the place. She loved it and could have played for hours like this.

Then we made a sheep. Mia's a huge fan of sticking - I think her childcare centre has been teaching them about sticky stuff recently. We kept to using clear contact because it's just so easy and I can sit back and watch her create without worrying that she's going to eat any glue.

And then a Father's Day present. I'd seen this idea months ago on Pinterest and thought it was very cute. So we made some homemade paints again with water, cornflour and food colouring. I thought I'd try this recipe and see if it lasted longer than the last time we made paints - the last recipe had a lot of sugar in it too - but it lasted much the same time. Actually I think I prefer the paint with sugar in it, because some of this crumbled and fell off when it was dry.

Finally I finished the smaller version of the quiet book - these ones have been made as gifts and for sale. The hours and hours of work that goes into one of these babies can never be set at a price that anyone's willing to pay, so I tried to keep it simple and limited myself to 6 activity pages - the best six. These have been Mia's favourites so far in her book.

            

Quiet book cover

Monkey with snap fasteners

      

Tie the shoe

Barn and animal finger puppets

                    

       

Count the beads

Tent, sleeping bag and doll with zippers

       

Mr Potato head with velcro

Pocket for all the pieces, plus some pieces for a Mrs Potato Head 

     

And some sewing for our baby who's now only 10 weeks away - a hanging wall storage and some wall art for above the cot.

I quilted the back section of the wall hanging and then made the pockets with square corners, lined with a very stiff interfacing. I'm still not sure if the pockets will sag after a while, especially if they're not stuffed full at the bottoms and have heavy stuff in them.

I found the idea for this one thanks to Martha Stewart, although the original idea was three larger frames. I bought a cheap white frame and a bunch of scrapbooking card stock and chose my book: Dr Seuss' Oh the Places You'll Go! The finished product looked quite effective - I especially like the black section with white writing and the orange giraffe. It stands out a lot more than the other two sections.

I made this one a while back, but never photographed it until now. I had made one as a birthday gift for a friend's baby, and had a second shirt so I thought I'd make one for Mia also. It turned out really cute and is an easy way to brighten up a plain t-shirt. I used heat and bond paper to attach the circles to the t-shirt fabric and then just sewed a tight zig zag stitch around each one to secure it on.